Northward Hill 27/06/23

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A visit hopefully to see White-letter Hairstreak in view of recent reports from the site. After parking the car in Northward Avenue I crossed the meadow and entered the wood from the top end. To my pleasant surprise I found a hairstreak within 10 minutes, on Elm though coming down to take nectar from bramble flowers, and on occasions no more than two metres away.

From there I followed the path south through the reserve and stumbled across another Hairstreak on the way, on Elm saplings. This one was even closer, down to 1 metre.

At the lower end of the reserve I bumped into Trevor and Den, so spent the next couple of hours with them exploring the east end of the site. We found 2-3 more hairstreaks, though none so obliging as those I'd previously seen.

Other butterflies seen on the day included my first of the year for Ringlet, Large Skipper, and Essex Skipper.

The site was alive with dragonflies, especially darters, though I also found Black-tailed Skimmer, and what I thought were Southern Migrant Hawkers.

White-letter Hairstreak 

As above



Grayling

Large Skipper 

Essex Skipper 

Comma

Ruddy Darter (female)

As above

Black-tailed Skimmer (male)

Black-tailed Skimmer (female)

Southern Migrant Hawker?


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